The El Cerrito High boys basketball team showed why it is the defending Alameda Contra Costa Athletic League champion, dominating every aspect of a 68-49 win Thursday over visiting Berkeley.

The Gauchos (10-4, 1-0 ACCAL) took an 11-point lead after the first quarter and maintained a double-digit advantage throughout the second half to win their league opener. The Yellowjackets (8-2, 1-1), ranked No. 4 in the Bay Area News Group-East Bay poll, never found the same rhythm that led to their strong performance in nonleague play.

“Anytime you get a championship, you never want to give it up,” El Cerrito coach Michael Booker said. “The league championship belongs to us until somebody beats us. So they came out tonight with a lot of intensity.”

Berkeley’s leading scorer — Langston Morris-Walker — finished with 16 but was held under wraps most of the night.

“I didn’t expect the score to be like it was, but I expected us to play hard,” Booker said. “Anytime these young men play hard, good things happen.”

Boys soccer

De La Salle 1, Livermore 0: Sullivan Tobin scored in the 46th minute off an assist from Michael Bernardi as the host Spartans won their second straight East Bay Athletic League game.

The Spartans (9-3-0, 2-2 EBAL) have won seven of their past eight games, including going 3-1 at the SoCal Showcase in San Diego.

“We’ve grown up a lot,” De La Salle coach Brian Voltattorni said. “We have a lot of young guys playing in critical spots, and we’re not where we want to be, but we’re maturing.”

All of the losses for the Cowboys (7-4-2, 2-2) have been by one goal.

On the goal, Bernardi flicked a ball to Tobin after a throw-in, and Tobin drilled a shot into the net.

Livermore played without injured captain and defender Anthony DeCosta, who has missed the past two games.

— Matt Smith,

correspondent

Girls basketball

Hunter appeal hearing: The family of Berkeley High senior Khristina Hunter and North Coast Section commissioner Gil Lemmon each presented their cases in front of a California Interscholastic Federation appeals committee Thursday regarding Hunter’s eligibility to play for the Yellowjackets this season.

The panel will decide within 15 days whether to grant Hunter immediate eligibility.

The 6-foot-2 Hunter, a former student at Rodriguez-Fairfield who has already signed a letter of intent with San Diego State, enrolled at Berkeley last spring but had her unlimited transfer eligibility denied by Lemmon. At the hearing, the section commissioner called the transfer “athletically motivated” and “a violation of athletic recruiting.”

The recruiting violation accusations stem from Hunter’s affiliation with the California Ballaz, an AAU team that includes several members of the Berkeley Yellowjackets.

Hunter’s “pre-enrollment contact” with those Berkeley players was inaccurately reported due to wording in the paperwork that Hunter’s lawyer, Spencer Smith, called “vague” and “confusing.”

A valid change of residence for the Hunters was also initially in question, but new evidence was submitted at the hearing.

Gangs were likely involved in the string of arson attacks, police said, and they come amid mounting concerns in Sweden about gang-related violence. More than 40 people were shot and killed in the Nordic country last year, and the prime minister said in January that he was not ruling out a military response to gang activity.

A rooftop camera recorded the silver Ford Fiesta driving past Parliament and suddenly veering sharply to the left, striking cyclists waiting at a set of lights, then crossing the road and crashing into a barrier outside Parliament. Armed police surrounded the car within seconds, pulling a man from the vehicle. Police said the driver was alone and no weapons were...